They have been good, thanks for asking...
I am enjoying the garage and the driveway finally got paved about 3 weeks ago so that's a real plus
Opie checked on me a while back because I had been off the forum for so long and I will tell you what I told him
I got a VERY mean PM last spring from a fairly new member who went off on me for...
1) hogging the "what did you do today regarding non-detailing" thread (as if that's possible)
2) showing off and bragging about my new house in the above mentioned thread
3) saying something negative about Mike Phillips
I was absolutely floored to be attacked like that by someone I don't know and had never even had harsh words with
I wasn't going to dignify the idiot with a response and I simply deleted the PM and chalked it up to experience
But
It came at a time when there was also a LOT of political rancor on the forum and both together just caused me to take a self imposed time out
I enjoy the forum 99% of the time and normally have a pretty thick skin but it was just too much
I really appreciated Opie reaching out to me and I appreciate you asking about the house
I am trying to ease back in to the forum but I am still a bit gun shy
That is appalling bad behavior and I hope you reported the member in question.
For record, in no way were you "bragging" or taking over the What Did You Do Today thread, and I enjoyed seeing your posts there. Even so, you have every right to show off something that matters to you.
I post on a core group of forums, sharing things that interest me or what I have been doing. I don't do this to show off, rather to engage with others on subjects I have no other outlet for. I have no one close to me that has a single positive thought towards detailing, or even cars in general. That's why I have been posting on forums since early 2008.
Lately, I have been getting increasingly disheartened by my forum life. I take a lot of time and effort writing, photographing, editing and then publishing information covering a variety of topics. I like to think I am a good writer, making sure I write for the audience in question. However, someone took the time to write me a private message pointing out a trivial grammatical error, one that I thought was self-explanatory.
I also have a certain person taking offence at how I like to spend my downtime, basically questioning why I would spend so much time washing my car, and why I would overcomplicate a task, that it's not rocket science. Said person carefully constructs negative posts, then when challenged or called out, turns it back on you as if you are the aggressor.
Then there are those who ask questions out of laziness, get the response they want, then fail to acknowledge the help they received. Or go on to ask the exact same question elsewhere, or again in the exact same thread.
I also find those who behave like that never contribute to the forum they are posting on, other than taking pot shots at other people or making snide comments. I have to wonder, why are these people on a specialist forum in the first place if they end up being negative on every single topic relating to the forum in question.
I'll point out that the above are is not from this forum.
️
after decades since release, there is a lot of nostalgia every time I drive it. It’s not perfect but that’s ok. I used to ride my bike to the local Chevy/Pontiac dealer (they sold both) and drooled over the Camaro/Firebird lineup back when they were brand new. 
